Summertime & Lack Of Water As The Burning Issue Of The Day

Philippines "lack of water"

Today, Thursday, 21 March 2019, in Manila I type the above line as my search words, including the double quotes, and Google gives me 9,800,000 results! Millions of webpages – that means that in the Philippines, lack of water is pervasive in the City, as well as in the Countryside. What do they have in common as the cause of water scarcity? I say I see:

Lack of consciousness in conserving water when there is plenty of it. The public complaining are the ones to blame for their water scarcity.

Look at my photograph above of a ricefield – the farmer has burned half of his field because the rice stubble interferes with his puddling of the soil for planting his rice. If the farmer only knew – if the Agricultural Training Institute, ATI, only taught him to convert the rice stubble into organic matter that will conserve the water in his field – I am assuming of course that the ATI knows!

Here we go again, William Dar seems to be saying in his new opinion piece in today's issue of the Manila Times (21 March 2019, "Achieving Water Security, Part 1" (21 March 2019, manilatimes.net):

News that water lack is hitting some areas in the country, including those that host farming, deeply bothers me. I mean, here we are again in a situation where we are "reactive," taking action only when a crisis manifests itself. What should have been done was anticipate the coming dry spell and make preparations, especially when water supply was still adequate or in abundance.

We do not conserve when we have plenty of water; we complain only when we run out of it.

Mr Dar says today, Thursday, the National Water Resources Board, will be holding the National Water Summit to discuss how the country can enjoy "water security." He says, "To date, agriculture accounts for about 80 percent of freshwater usage in the Philippines and approximately 70 percent worldwide." That tells me that where there is lack of water in the Countryside, you can blame the farmers 80% of the time!

I agree when Mr Dar says:

And here is the crux of the matter – unless we take steps to rejuvenate, preserve and improve the country's rivers, lakes, wetlands and watersheds from this year until 2025, the country would face a possible water crisis.

Yes, but I am not going to exonerate the farmer from the sin of commission of burning up his ricefield when he should be converting his rice stubble into organic matter to retain water on his field – which will also store the rainwater during the rainy days, as well as prevent soil erosion even during pouring rains. This is not to mention his wasteful use of water during land preparation and even long after.

And so I go back to my photograph of the farmer burning his ricefield, which he does not realize is reducing his soil's ability to store water enough for his crops. The farmer is burning his own Water Bearer!517